WW2Steel.com
page last modified 01Mar'09
My Aviation Career!
I work as a pilot. I love my job, but it does have its down sides. Everyone knows the up sides - going cool places, having a great view, respect, airline pilots getting travel benefits, good pay, etc. There are bad parts though, depending on job - never being able to make plans because charter and corporate type pilots are almost always on call for a trip, the pay at some places is REALLY bad (I made more pumping gas at the airport after my furlough than I did as a regional airline FO!), and other things that I really don't feel like complaining about. (If you are thinking about getting into flying and want input, just click the email bullet above, I'm glad to help you make sure it is what you want to do.)
I want to go back to work for a 121 airline - for the equipment and travel benefits primarily. My wife is Czech, and I want her to be able to go home and not worry about spending the $1500+ for our trans-atlantic travel. (Shoot, right now we can't do it worry free or otherwise!) Just before I was furloughed I contacted the Chief Pilot at Trans States and explained that we needed to get her back home for some financial errands and he was actually cool enough to walk over to scheduling and have them pull me off for a few days to allow us time to go over there for a week. I was very impressed and made sure to tell the other pilots how cool he had been. My wife and I rode over on a United 747- business class Dulles to Frankfurt and first class on the return. (The 74 has four classes for United - economy, econ plus, business, and first. Bus & 1st have all lay- flat seats, they can be electrically reclined like a bed. Each seat has it's own LCD screen with on-demand movies, multiplayer games, 1st class even has laptop hookups with satellite internet. Out of Roughly 384 pax seats, something like 48 are business and only 12 are first - right up in the nose under the cockpit. They really made us feel like a royalty and I'll never forget it! I looked on Expedia - those tickets bought two days in advance would have cost $33,000+. Yes, that's the right number of zeros, and more than twice what I made during the 8 months that I worked there!!!) It was really cool, and it made me feel great to be able to provide that to my wife and the visit to her family.
The problem is that I simply CANNOT afford to sit right seat at a regional airline. I cannot make the house payment off of my wife's income plus a regional airline FO pay of roughly $20k. At 32 years old and married I was literally back to borrowing money from my parents to make ends meet- and that was with my domicile in my hometown. Now that that domicile is essentially closed there is absolutely no way I can pay for a crash pad in another city, plus our normal expenses, plus incidental commuting expenses. I hope I can get to quality a 121 airline from a Beechjet, or there may be no way I can do it. I liked working at Trans States normally, I loved the flying and most all of the people, but I can't even keep our modest house on the pay. ...I really have no idea what to do, except hope I can get to a major from this Beechjet.
My mini resume:
3700 Total
3100 Multiengine Turbine
1800 PIC Turbine
Type rated in the Shorts SD-3, Beechjet Be400 (and Mu-300), SIC type in the EMB-145. PIC level C sim trained in King Air Be200.
I have completed numerous professional training programs, inc. two airline programs (121 and 135), and 75 hours of level C/D sim at both Flight Safety and Simuflite.
Current job: Pilot of a Beechjet, based in Richmond, VA (back to the same employer as the King Air, I guess I did a good job!)
Marsh Harbour, Bahamas, on Monday
Montreal, Canada, on a Wednesday/Thursday overnight (unfortunately every week is not this interesting!)
Previous job: First Officer for Trans States Airlines (furloughed)
I've flown probably every aircraft in the fleet, including the one in the pic on the right. The pic on the left is me in Denver flying a United route. I mostly did United, but did about 10% each of my flying for US Air and American.
(Looking for a decent pic, I kind of borrowed this one until I find one of my own!)
Previous job: Captain of a corporate King Air B100 (with the extra noisy Garrett engines), we did about 50% of our flying as 135 charter.
Previous job: Air Cargo Carriers, First Officer and Captain 2003-2006
The aircraft on the left is 938MA. It is a Shorts 3-30 (see the twin tail). It is used in military service with a rear cargo ramp as the C-23A. I was a first officer on this aircraft out of chilly Iron Mountain Michigan for most of '03-'04. This aircraft was shown in the background of "Silence of the Lambs" when the main bad guy is being moved. (IIRC, it's been a while since I have seen the movie.) Sadly, in late 2008 it was flipped onto its back by high winds in Ohio and was destroyed. Sucks, it's like loosing an old friend; I have maybe 700 hours in it and it was my first turbine aircraft. :(
The two aircraft on the right are among the ones I flew as a captain out of Indianapolis in 2004-2006. Notice the single, large tail. Better engines (still PT-6s) and less drag it was a little faster - maybe 180 knots instead of 170. (Yes, slow, for a turbine.)
...and, of course, I flew as a flight instructor before all of this. This was my initial CFI ride in a PA-28R Arrow (which I passed on the first ride). I keep it current to this day.
My first flight was circa 1993. I lost the little logbook unfortunately, because I never thought I'd be able to pay for even my private license just for a hobby. I went to flight school full time in 2000 after attempting to do it at a shoddy local FBO during college. The FBO experience was horrible, but Averett University in Danville, Virginia, was a good time - and I had a great flight instructor from Finland. I realized just how important a quality flight instructor is. I got my CFI and II in 2002-03.
I work as a pilot. I love my job, but it does have its down sides. Everyone knows the up sides - going cool places, having a great view, respect, airline pilots getting travel benefits, good pay, etc. There are bad parts though, depending on job - never being able to make plans because charter and corporate type pilots are almost always on call for a trip, the pay at some places is REALLY bad (I made more pumping gas at the airport after my furlough than I did as a regional airline FO!), and other things that I really don't feel like complaining about. (If you are thinking about getting into flying and want input, just click the email bullet above, I'm glad to help you make sure it is what you want to do.)
I want to go back to work for a 121 airline - for the equipment and travel benefits primarily. My wife is Czech, and I want her to be able to go home and not worry about spending the $1500+ for our trans-atlantic travel. (Shoot, right now we can't do it worry free or otherwise!) Just before I was furloughed I contacted the Chief Pilot at Trans States and explained that we needed to get her back home for some financial errands and he was actually cool enough to walk over to scheduling and have them pull me off for a few days to allow us time to go over there for a week. I was very impressed and made sure to tell the other pilots how cool he had been. My wife and I rode over on a United 747- business class Dulles to Frankfurt and first class on the return. (The 74 has four classes for United - economy, econ plus, business, and first. Bus & 1st have all lay- flat seats, they can be electrically reclined like a bed. Each seat has it's own LCD screen with on-demand movies, multiplayer games, 1st class even has laptop hookups with satellite internet. Out of Roughly 384 pax seats, something like 48 are business and only 12 are first - right up in the nose under the cockpit. They really made us feel like a royalty and I'll never forget it! I looked on Expedia - those tickets bought two days in advance would have cost $33,000+. Yes, that's the right number of zeros, and more than twice what I made during the 8 months that I worked there!!!) It was really cool, and it made me feel great to be able to provide that to my wife and the visit to her family.
The problem is that I simply CANNOT afford to sit right seat at a regional airline. I cannot make the house payment off of my wife's income plus a regional airline FO pay of roughly $20k. At 32 years old and married I was literally back to borrowing money from my parents to make ends meet- and that was with my domicile in my hometown. Now that that domicile is essentially closed there is absolutely no way I can pay for a crash pad in another city, plus our normal expenses, plus incidental commuting expenses. I hope I can get to quality a 121 airline from a Beechjet, or there may be no way I can do it. I liked working at Trans States normally, I loved the flying and most all of the people, but I can't even keep our modest house on the pay. ...I really have no idea what to do, except hope I can get to a major from this Beechjet.
My mini resume:
3700 Total
3100 Multiengine Turbine
1800 PIC Turbine
Type rated in the Shorts SD-3, Beechjet Be400 (and Mu-300), SIC type in the EMB-145. PIC level C sim trained in King Air Be200.
I have completed numerous professional training programs, inc. two airline programs (121 and 135), and 75 hours of level C/D sim at both Flight Safety and Simuflite.
Current job: Pilot of a Beechjet, based in Richmond, VA (back to the same employer as the King Air, I guess I did a good job!)
Marsh Harbour, Bahamas, on Monday
Montreal, Canada, on a Wednesday/Thursday overnight (unfortunately every week is not this interesting!)
Previous job: First Officer for Trans States Airlines (furloughed)
I've flown probably every aircraft in the fleet, including the one in the pic on the right. The pic on the left is me in Denver flying a United route. I mostly did United, but did about 10% each of my flying for US Air and American.
(Looking for a decent pic, I kind of borrowed this one until I find one of my own!)
Previous job: Captain of a corporate King Air B100 (with the extra noisy Garrett engines), we did about 50% of our flying as 135 charter.
Previous job: Air Cargo Carriers, First Officer and Captain 2003-2006
The aircraft on the left is 938MA. It is a Shorts 3-30 (see the twin tail). It is used in military service with a rear cargo ramp as the C-23A. I was a first officer on this aircraft out of chilly Iron Mountain Michigan for most of '03-'04. This aircraft was shown in the background of "Silence of the Lambs" when the main bad guy is being moved. (IIRC, it's been a while since I have seen the movie.) Sadly, in late 2008 it was flipped onto its back by high winds in Ohio and was destroyed. Sucks, it's like loosing an old friend; I have maybe 700 hours in it and it was my first turbine aircraft. :(
The two aircraft on the right are among the ones I flew as a captain out of Indianapolis in 2004-2006. Notice the single, large tail. Better engines (still PT-6s) and less drag it was a little faster - maybe 180 knots instead of 170. (Yes, slow, for a turbine.)
...and, of course, I flew as a flight instructor before all of this. This was my initial CFI ride in a PA-28R Arrow (which I passed on the first ride). I keep it current to this day.
My first flight was circa 1993. I lost the little logbook unfortunately, because I never thought I'd be able to pay for even my private license just for a hobby. I went to flight school full time in 2000 after attempting to do it at a shoddy local FBO during college. The FBO experience was horrible, but Averett University in Danville, Virginia, was a good time - and I had a great flight instructor from Finland. I realized just how important a quality flight instructor is. I got my CFI and II in 2002-03.